Angel In A Haystack
by Lauren Ross
Summary: Rachel Berry always thought that life would never change for her on the Berry Farm; until one day she discovers a beautiful girl named Quinn Fabray sleeping in their barn. Faberry story about love, hate, and what it means to be complete.
1. Chapter 1

The feel of a wet nose and tongue all over her face made Rachel Berry wake up from her deep slumber. She grumbled and tried to push her dog Barbra away, but the dog whined and continued to assault her. Finally she gave into the dog's demands and opened her eyes to see a mound of husky staring at her with a lopsided grin and lolling tongue. As soon as the dog saw her open her eyes, she licked her nose, causing her to giggle.

"Hey there baby! Why are you up so early?" Rachel whispered sleepily, still fighting to stay awake. Barbra whined and jumped down from the bed, ran to the open door of the bedroom, then back again, nudging its owner's hand. Sighing, Rachel sat up in bed, knowing that the dog wanted her to follow her. She ran her fingers through her long and tangled mess of brown hair, grabbing a hair tie from her nightstand so she could pull it up in a sloppy bun. Stretching, she climbed slowly out of her bed, much to the impatience of her dog. Barbra whined and stood at the doorway, tail wagging as her owner shuffled sleepily over in her short tank top and boxers. "Calm yourself Barbra, I'm coming, geez." Rachel mumbled, walking over to the door.

As soon as she got close to the door, Barbra launched herself down the stairs. Rachel followed a lot slower, still not the most awake person at that moment. She followed her dog through their house until they got to the back door where the doggy flap was. Barbra leaped through, then stuck her head inside and whined for Rachel. "I get it, hold on a sec." she said, rolling her eyes at how crazy her dog was; she probably just found a squirrel or something and wanted to show her. She grabbed her tennis shoes and slipped them on without any socks because she was so not going all the way back up those stairs just to get socks to follow her crazy dog outside even it did feel weird wearing just shoes. She opened the back door as quietly as possible, so she did not wake her still sleeping fathers, and proceeded to close it behind her soundlessly.

Rachel followed her dog down the gravel pathway until they got to the horse barn, and then Barbra proceeded to run inside the slight crack in the door they always leave for her so she can keep the horses company. Sighing, the disgruntled girl slipped through the small opening so she could see what all the commotion was about with her insane dog. She looked around for her dog inside the semi-lit barn, the rising sun showing through the windows giving off enough light so she did not trip over anything. The seven horses they had were all either asleep or feeding quietly like normal and the stalls were all closed-except one.

Frowning, Rachel approached the slightly open stall of her favorite horse Golden Star, wondering fearfully if the horse got loose. Out of all the horses they had, Golden Star was the most terrifying of them all, and only Rachel could approach her without fear of being trampled or bitten. If she got loose…well, she felt sorry for whoever got in the horse's way. Suddenly Barbra popped her head out from the open stall, waiting for her owner to go inside. Getting even more worried by the second by what was in the stall; she approached it with caution, all sorts of scary options running through her mind.

What she saw was something she would never forget in her entire life.

Golden Star was, thankfully, still in the stall, lying down on the hay-strewn floor of the barn sound asleep. She had her head resting on the stomach of a girl who was also asleep on the hay. The girl was someone Rachel had never seen before, she knew, because she would have definitely remembered someone that beautiful. She was snoring softly, limbs strewn every which way, and long blond hair with bits of straw in it. She had fair skin, free of blemishes, and a body every woman would kill to have. Her face was relaxed and carefree, peaceful even, in her sleep. She was wearing a torn and messed up white dress, which, Rachel realized a second later, was a wedding dress. She thought that the scene before her was amazing and very strange at the same time; but she also felt as though she was meant to see this. She did not know why she felt that way, but she did. It was a picture perfect scene- until the reality of the situation caught up to her.

Why was there a beautiful bride in her barn?

Why was Golden Star sleeping peacefully with her and not ripping her head off?

Most importantly, what was she supposed to do?


	2. Chapter 2

Rachel was still standing there, trying to decide what to do about the blonde girl, when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She shrieked and turned around to find one of her fathers, Leroy Berry, standing there looking just as terrified as she felt. "Geez girl, calm yourself; you scared me half to death!" he said in his usual lilting voice. He had his left hand over his heart, and wore a fluffy pink bathrobe with his favorite strap-on sandals. "I heard you get up so I came to ask you why you got up so ear-"he stopped mid-sentence, because he finally noticed the sleeping girl in the stable behind his daughter. He just stared for a second, taking in the scene before him, and then he looked at his daughter and said "Why is there a bride in our barn?"

"I honestly don't know Daddy," she said, shrugging her shoulders and glancing back at the peaceful-looking girl. "Barbra wanted me to follow her out here and she was here when I walked in, sleeping with Golden Star like he's not a demon." The said horse was starting to wake up, lifting his head to stare at the two Berrys sleepily. He seemed calm, at ease, which was extremely unusual for him. Extremely.

Leroy moved closer to the sleeping girl to try and wake her up, but Golden Star was becoming more like him and gave a warning neigh for the older man to back off. Rachel hastily pulled him back and went to wake the girl up instead, because she was the only one who could get near him and not die; apparently not anymore, a voice said in her head, this stranger can too. That fact just made her all the more interesting. She knelt down next to the girl, careful to avoid stepping on her strewn limbs, and reached out a hand to shake her bare shoulder. When her hand made contact with the skin, she was surprised to find it burning up and clammy, and she tried to shake the girl's shoulder gently. The girl did not move at all; her head lolled to one side from the movement but other than that she stayed the same.

"Daddy, I think she's sick or something; she won't wake up." Rachel said, worry very much evident in her voice for the stranger. She shook the girl's shoulder harder and even tried pinching her arm so she would wake up but still the girl slept on. Then a thought hit her; what if the girl was not even sleeping? What if she was unconscious? This just made her try even harder to wake the girl up with no avail. "Golden Star, up-up!" she ordered the horse sternly, and for once the horse did not even throw a fit at being told what to do; he just stood up on all four legs carefully without stepping on the girl. Rachel was starting to think that well-behaved Golden Star was really creepy. As soon as the horse moved, Leroy swooped in and lifted up the girl's limp body from the floor and backed out of the stable before the horse could attack him.

"Let's get her inside the house and call the doctor; hopefully he doesn't mind making house calls this early." Leroy said while adjusting his hold on the girl. The girl was so lightweight that he had no problem carrying her back up to the house; after all, he lived on a farm and threw around bales of hay all of the time. Rachel followed closely behind after shutting the stable door on Golden Star so he really did not get loose. Barbra ran ahead, seeming to be in a happy mood, tail wagging and tongue lolling. When they got to the house, Hiram, Rachel's other father, was standing in the doorway rubbing his eyes.

"What's all the commotion abo-oh? Who's this little one?" Hiram said, still tired but interested in the strange girl in his husband's arms. He moved aside so they could get through the door, Leroy carefully setting the girl down on their plush living room couch so he could get to the phone. Rachel sat on the floor by the girl, admiring the bridal gown; it looked like it had been beautiful, once upon a time; now it was torn to shreds and covered in dirt and blood. Blood? She looked closer at the dress- it had a lot of dried blood, and even some fresh looking. She quickly noticed that it was coming from her back, so she carefully positioned the girl so she didn't bleed all over the couch. "What's going on? Leroy? Rachel?" Hiram was asking, looking highly confused.

"I found her sleeping in the barn with Golden Star, and then Daddy followed me out there, and then I tried to wake her up and I think she's hurt Dad…" Rachel said, tears forming in her eyes out of nowhere. Hiram sat down next to her and pulled her into his lap like he used to when she was a little girl and held her close. He knew that his daughter had always been akin to other people and their emotions, but it seemed more than that this time. Leroy was in the kitchen, talking to the doctor, and Barbra was sitting calmly by the stranger's feet on the floor. They stayed that way for the next minute or so, until both Rachel and Hiram heard Leroy hang up the phone. They stood up when he walked into the room, and he said, "Dr. Evans will be here soon; he was more than happy to get up to come over here, but I still feel bad for calling him over this early in the morning-it's not even eight o'clock yet!" Rachel sighed, some of her anxiety gone, and Hiram patted her on the head.

"In the meantime, Hiram, we need to change into decent clothing before the doctor gets here because there is no way I am looking like this when that man walks through the door." Leroy said, gesturing to his outfit ad making a face. The doctor was young and handsome, and her fathers loved him TOO much. Hiram made a noise of agreement and followed his husband upstairs to their room to get changed as well. Rachel decided she didn't need to change, because she was in no way attracted to the doctor and she wasn't shy about showing skin around him-they had known each other for years, and had a brother-sister bond. As an only child, she loved having him around because there weren't many kids her age that talked to her because she was so shy.

She also did not want to leave the strange girl alone; she found it wrong to just leave her there when she was probably injured badly. So she made herself a cup of quick instant coffee and sat back down on the floor nursing the cup to her chest to warm up a bit. Barbra padded over and sat next to her, laying her head down on her owner's lap.

This was going to take forever.


	3. Chapter 3

About a half an hour later, Dr. Sam Evans walked through their front door, not even in his day clothes yet. He had on grey sweatpants and a grey hoodie, and carried his medical bag. His green eyes locked onto Rachel's chocolate ones and instantly calmed her down. He had an uncanny ability to be able to make her calm down when no one else could, an ability he used now. He hurried over, ignoring her swooning fathers, and knelt down next to her. As he flipped his blond hair out of his eyes, he said in a low voice, "It's okay Little Star, I'll help her, okay?" She nodded, taking a shaky drink of her cold coffee, wondering why she was so shaky. I shouldn't be this worried for a complete stranger, she thought, watching Sam examine the female who was unconscious on their couch. He worked quickly, efficiently, and professionally. He peeled back sections of the shredded brides dress to see where the wounds were, checked her pulse, listened to her heart rate, and shined a flashlight in her eyes.

Sam turned to Rachel and her fathers and said in a slightly worried voice, "She did lose consciousness, but she should regain it within the next few hours or so. The dried blood is not hers, because she has only superficial wounds as far as I can see, except her back…" He looked back at the stranger, then steeled himself and said, "She had the word 'mine' carved into her upper back, which is why she is bleeding so bad."

Silence.

"Poor girl…" said Hiram as he held his husband close, sympathetic tears in his eyes. Leroy put his arm around Rachel, who looked like she was about to fall to the floor in shock. The words "poor girl" seemed too simple of words to describe her feelings about hearing this new piece of information to add to the puzzle that was this stranger. She just could not wrap her head around why anyone would want to harm someone as beautiful as this girl.

"Anyway, she needs to have her…wound…cleaned out with alcohol and bandaged up, and she needs to get some fresh clothes and water; she has a fever, a high one, and just needs to take a few aspirin a day to help with the fever and the pain. Other than that, she should recover in no time from…whatever it was that happened. You say you just found her in your barn?" Sam said, getting a nod from a silent Rachel. "With Golden Star?" Another nod from the brunette. "Wow, wish I would have been there to see that! That horse would have torn me to shreds if I tried that!" he said, laughing and smiling. It got Rachel to smile slightly; his laugh always did. "Hey, Little Star, she'll be okay, okay?" he said, all traces of laughter gone after seeing his failed attempt at making her laugh.

"Okay. Sorry, I just…thank you, for coming over and helping her, I really appreciate it Sam." Rachel said, forcing herself to smile, fiddling with the hem of her tank top. She walked over and gave the taller boy a tight hug, expressing her thanks through the touch. He hugged her back just as fiercely, displaying his brotherly love. He waved goodbye to Leroy as Hiram showed him to the door. After they all heard his sleek Camaro roll away down the driveway, they just stood there for a second. Then Rachel said, "Can you guys help me get her up the stairs into the main bathroom so I can clean her up?" She let Barbra outside, who had been scratching at the door for the past minute or so, while her fathers collaborated and carried the girl slowly up the stairs like they would have a couch.

Rachel followed them up to their main bathroom, which was three times the size a normal bathroom usually was because her father's love of bathroom decorating was quite extreme. They had a huge ornate bathtub, three sinks, a stand-in shower, and a huge ultra-fluffy pink rug smack in the middle of the room. The walls were decorated with sea shells and painted to look like waves crashing down all round. Everything was polished and clean, spotless just the way it always was. They sat her up on the edge of the tub, and all three of them undressed her quickly and awkwardly, none of them looking at her back. Rachel did not think she could look ever, nor did her fathers. Then they filled the huge tub with warm water and put her in gently. It was like handling a giant doll, creepy and actually kind of fun at the same time, at least in Hiram and Leroy's opinion. Rachel was too worked up to think about anything except the girl and having to clean her up.

Her fathers left her to her own devices and shut the bathroom door behind them as they wandered downstairs to discuss what to do about the random girl in their house.


	4. Chapter 4

Rachel stood there for a second, the realization that she was about to try and clean the blonde's dirty body suddenly hitting her. Gulping, she grabbed a couple washrags and the bottle of alcohol out of the closet. Never in her life did she think she would do anything like this, and it was still kind of surreal. She approached the blonde sitting up in the water slowly, not looking forward to seeing the injury on her back but knowing that it needed to be cleaned. She sat down with her legs in the warm water on either side of the blonde so she could make sure the blonde did not suddenly fall sideways into the water and drowned. She used one hand to hold the blonde's upper body away from her so she could clean the wound. When she saw it, she almost screamed and let go of the stranger.

The upper part of the stranger's back was covered in blood, some of it fresh, oozing from four letters in all capitals spelling out "MINE". The letters were not slashed or cut into the skin; they were carved, each letter about in inch in width. The carvings were a little deep, but not enough to be mortal danger, only enough to make Rachel want to vomit. It was sickening and wrong on so many levels, and of all the people to have that happen to, it had to be a girl as beautiful as this one? She gripped the edge of the tub with her free hand and closed her eyes, taking a steadying breath. She had to calm down; she had to clean the ghastly wound. She had to.

Rachel grabbed the bottle of alcohol, unscrewing the cap with the help of her teeth since her other hand was being used to prevent the girl from drowning, and quickly poured some onto her bloody back before she could talk herself out of it. She expected the girl to still be deep enough in unconsciousness that she would not feel a thing-

-she did not expect the girl to suddenly scream in pain.

Rachel shrieked in surprise, scared half to death, and tightened her hold on the girl's shoulder because she had an instinct that the girl was going to try and bolt. Sure enough, the girl tried to get up and out of the tub but was too weak to get very far; however, she had enough strength to throw an already surprised Rachel off balance and into the water. Sputtering, she scowled and yelled at the stranger, "HEY! I'm trying to help you so will you just CALM DOWN!?"

The blonde froze and spun around, locking eyes with a soaking wet Rachel sitting next to her in the water. They both just stared at each other for a minute, Rachel wondering how in the world a person's eyes could be that bright of hazel. They were mostly green, with flecks of brown and gold, and they looked extremely confused.

Well, I would be too if I woke up in a bathtub in pain in the middle of god knows where, Rachel thought.

"W-where am I…?" the girl said in a soft voice, "W-what's going on? I d-don't…" She grimaced in pain from trying to move so fast before from her adrenaline rush. She gripped the side of the tub and averted her eyes from Rachel's chocolate ones. She looked like a caged animal, scared and lost, and Rachel's heart went out to the poor thing.

"Do you not remember anything?"

The girl clenched her jaw and said nothing, only turning away so her back faced Rachel, but not before the brunette could see the answer to her question: she remembered. She definitely remembered. The amount of pain and sorrow in her eyes before she turned away was so overwhelming that Rachel couldn't resist the urge to reach out and put a hand on the girl's shoulder in some form of comfort.

"Whatever it was, you don't have to tell me." Rachel made herself say, even though she herself really did want to know, "At least let me know your name." She waited until the girl turned back towards her to smile, to show that she was being sincere. The girl looked into her eyes with pensive hazel ones, but seemed to finally come to a decision.

"Quinn"

Rachel smiled even bigger, feeling somewhat accomplished to finally know the stranger's name. She did not question the lack of a last name, she only said, "That's such a pretty name, Quinn. My name is Rachel Berry and my dad's names are Hiram and Leroy; I'll point out who's who when you see them. But for now, I need to finish cleaning that wound on your back, okay?" She made no move to get out of the tub, content to stay in the lukewarm water still in her tank top and boxers. Quinn nodded and turned back around, Rachel reaching for the alcohol bottle. She gulped and said, "I know this will hurt, but could you try and not move?" Again, Quinn nodded, this time gripping the tub edge in front of her in a death hold, bracing herself.

Wincing, Rachel just poured the rest of the almost empty bottle down Quinn's back quickly, watching the blonde's body go rigid with pain, but not a sound was heard from her this time. The brunette kept saying "sorry" over and over again while she used a wash rag to try and get the bits of caked blood out of the gashes. Quinn said nothing, only the tense way she held herself up showed that she was in pain, though Rachel was sure her eyes held so much more than what she was showing. When she was done, she threw the rag away from her in disgust and it fell to the floor of the bathroom next to the empty bottle of alcohol. She leaned back and surveyed her work; the wound still looked terrible and it would definitely leave a scar, but it did not look as horrifying as it did before. She placed a hand on the girl's shoulder and said gently, "I know you're hurting Quinn, I can tell. You don't have to hide it from me. Just let it out."

Quinn froze for a second under the brunette's touch, shaking with heart wrenching sobs, her silent façade crumbling down. Rachel just moved closer to her and held her naked body to her, arms around her waist making soothing noises into her hair as she sobbed into her shoulder uncontrollably. The sound of her sobs let Rachel know lost this girl really was; they were the sobs of someone who was utterly and completely alone in the world.


End file.
